LA Times News

LA Times News

Shelter is barely a refuge for Japanese survivors

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 08:06 PM PDT

For many stuck in a shelter in Tagajo, time drags and the monotony is prison-like. Meals are Spartan, not even meeting basic needs.

Tsutomu Suzuki's world is 6 feet long and 12 feet wide, a crude refuge he and his family of five have staked out in an upstairs lobby of the Tagajo cultural center.

Obama administration won't pursue civilian trials for 9/11 suspects

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 07:16 PM PDT

The administration acquiesces to GOP demands that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four suspected co-conspirators be tried before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.

The Obama administration admitted defeat in its efforts to prosecute the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks before a civilian jury in New York City, announcing that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four others would be tried by a military commission at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Ciudad Juarez's top police official accused of rights abuses

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 07:35 PM PDT

Human rights activists demand an outside investigation into the disappearance of four civilian men March 26 in the city, which has the highest drug-war death toll in Mexico.

Less than a month into his job as the top police official in Mexico's most violent city, Lt. Col. Julian Leyzaola is confronting the kind of abuse allegation that dogged his similar law-enforcement stint in Tijuana.

U.N., French troops strike military bases in Ivory Coast

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 05:15 PM PDT

The troops launch airstrikes on military bases in Abidjan loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo after attacks on the U.N. compound and forces.

United Nations and French military helicopters in Ivory Coast attacked two military bases in Abidjan, along with the presidential palace and residence, undercutting Laurent Gbagbo's desperate fight to retain power after an election the international community says he lost.

More Yemeni protesters killed in fresh wave of bloodshed

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 11:54 AM PDT

Yemeni police open fire as tens of thousands mass in Taiz while demonstrators in Hudaydah are met with tear gas and bullets. President Ali Abdullah Saleh shows no sign of going quietly amid U.S. and European efforts to broker his exit.

The long and incendiary reign of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh shows no sign of ending quietly as fresh bloodshed threatens the nation amid efforts by U.S. and European officials to ease weeks of protest and dangerous political maneuvering that could ignite a civil war.

Afghan policeman kills 2 U.S. soldiers

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 11:02 AM PDT

The slayings occur while protests over a Florida pastor's burning of the Koran continue for the fourth day.

An Afghan policeman shot and killed two American soldiers Monday in northern Afghanistan, the province's deputy governor said, and protests flared for a fourth straight day in several Afghan cities and towns over an American pastor's burning of the Koran.

Japan clears discharge of some radioactive water into sea

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 07:57 AM PDT

Some water from the crippled Fukushima complex is being released to make room for more severely contaminated water in a government-approved measure. Officials say the move does not pose an immediate threat to humans.

The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant began releasing thousands of tons of radioactive water into the sea Monday evening under an emergency measure approved by the government to make room in storage tanks for far more severely contaminated water.

Japan's nuclear workers try to trace leak, dump radioactive water

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 05:54 AM PDT

Milky bath salts are added to the water, which continues to flow despite efforts to plug the leak. Concern grows about the amount of tainted water being dumped.

Workers used a milky bathwater dye Monday as they frantically tried to trace the path of radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant.

Italy recognizes rebels as Libya's government

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 04:24 AM PDT

Two Western countries now see Kadafi's opponents as the legitimate rulers. The strongman's representative has failed to gain support on a diplomatic trip.

Italy on Monday formally recognized the rebel government of eastern Libya, dealing yet another blow to the embattled regime of Col. Moammar Kadafi.

Libya rebels just learning how to use their guns

Posted: 03 Apr 2011 06:51 PM PDT

Young, inexperienced fighters have left jobs and families to battle Moammar Kadafi's forces. The rebels don't want to end up like their parents, trapped in a police state. But some shoot more photos than bullets.

He had the tough, focused bearing of a combat veteran. Tall and powerfully built, he wore form-fitting camouflage fatigues, sunglasses and combat boots. A Kalashnikov assault rifle was slung across his chest.

An American drawn to help his Ivorian homeland

Posted: 03 Apr 2011 08:27 PM PDT

An American tech whiz returns to the land he left at age 15, to help President-elect Alassane Ouattara take up the information battle against incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

Two months ago, the American had a peaceful suburban life in New Jersey with his three children, a nice car and his own company. Now he is at war.

Ship ferries Libyan wounded from besieged Misurata

Posted: 03 Apr 2011 08:27 PM PDT

Moammar Kadafi's soldiers have pummeled the country's third-largest city with daily rocket and tank fire. The aid vessel's passengers know they are lucky to have survived.

The survivors lay on green cots Sunday in the musty halls of the Turkish ship that rescued them from the besieged western Libyan coastal city of Misurata.